09 November 2012

NYKDLN - "Post Radio"

NYKDLN is the very prolific project of a Pennsylvania musician. I have yet to do an article on any of his music, and I'm not sure why, considering the fact I've been loving his releases for awhile. But, I thought that this new album, Post Radio, after listening to it, would be a great place to start. Post Radio is easily one of 2012's most ambitious and interesting LPs, for sure. On the 17 tracks on this album (which include 3 songs passing the 10 minute mark, one almost breaking 30 minutes), NYKDLN puts together harsh noisescapes of radio interviews, warped tape recordings, and ear demolishing drones. This is a record is definitely not easy to digest, but I'm am amazed by it.

The album begins with "Welcome to the 96 Transom", an this odd trip through radio clicks and a what might be a payphone. It's very off putting, with this odd monotone man on the phone, and your never sure quite what he's talking about. Lots of harsh noise drones, various tape sounds and samples liter the second half of the track very eerily. It starts this LP off perfectly. "2 BR" is a very odd sort of flipbook of sounds and songs. All very distorted and physically altered. This track also gives us the first taste of one of this LP's sort of themes: religion. The track has a very daint and quite TV interview with a pastor going on. You hear tons of stuff like that popping up through out this album. I always find the interviews very interesting, they seem to give the album some sort of storyline. I don't know. But, the next track, "10 To The Trillionth Free Radicals" is a 30 minute sound collage that is really something. Zipping in every direction you can imagine, this track really makes you just get lost in its mass of sounds. There is just so much on the track, that it almost does constitute its massive length. "Poison Tape Inside" sounds like a 1980s pop song played through an FX unit and just played and altered to whatever point NYKDLN wants. "Slo No" is another towering song, coming in at just under 20 minutes. This track really is not the sound collage tracks that you've experienced so far from this album, but more of just pure harsh drone noise song. It's really a hard track to get through, with tons of loud and brutally shredding moments. Man. It's really something to just kind of gawk at in amazement. "LOLOLOLO" is a brief 1 minute song sampling what seems to be some kind of old fashioned march music, just very altered and sped up. "Recchi" is a very odd and warped trip through a ton of just mind melting samples. Shredding doorways of new sounds are what you must go through on this shorter song, and it's worth it, but you may not comeback. "The Limiter" is based on mainly a single progressing sample throughout the song, and it sounds perfect. "ETR" is this delay and echo ridden interview compilation that goes on for 13 full minutes, and it is an incredibly trippy ride. Altered and delayed voices, often with harsh noise surrounding it. It's intense. "If They Only Played Once" has a great warping punk sample in it. "Jenkins Quadrat" is a noisy, knob twisting sort of track. Loads of drones, pitches altered, button switching, and even a brief Ke$ha sample are all on this 13 minute track. "Do Not Apply To God" is a repeating interview with a priest with looping on random parts over and over. It's a bit torturous at points, but very innovative as far as samples go. "My Idea" is a tampered with rock song that bounces with effects all over the place. The next two tracks are more knob twisting sample based short pieces. "Speculator 96 Jackson" will kind of be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for less patient listeners. It's a brief and fun sample of a pop song that will please fans of 18 Carat Affair and Diskette Romances. It's a nice and quick way to end a monsterous album.

This album, like I said earlier, is easily one of 2012's most ambitious projects to be released. The record really makes on rethink what a sample based record is. Is it a record made up of found beats and hooks? Or can samples be used for way more than that? NYKDLN proves that with Post Radio. It's very rare a record like this comes along. Let us cherish it. You can stream and download the record up above, and order the double cassette from Sunup Recordings right here.